The misleading Guardian article on negative positions ascribed to Ecuador towards Mr Assange and Mr Snowden continues been used as source in international dispatches. In this article I introduce a new analysis on the content of the interview to the President of Ecuador Rafael Correa published by The Guardian. The analysis includes new transcription-details of texts not reviewed in the first part of this series published in my post What Correa really said about Assange and the safe-conduct to Snowden.

Introduction and possible rationale of the distortion campaign

In the beginning I did not care much in finding the rationale of that new Guardian story focusing on President Correa and Mr Assange, and partly the Edward Snowden asylum issue. Or better put it, reflecting on whether there are other or new aspects in this disinformation campaign, besides items already analysed in previous posts in Professors blog about the Guardian; some of them published already in 2011. We at the Professors blogg were already quite familiar with this classical, periodical Guardian-number in these regards; namely, the smearing against the organization WikiLeaks and in particular against its founder Mr Julian Assange – and also the censorship or filtering used in the Guardian against articles published in these columns. A revealing background about the Guardian campaigns against Mr Julian Assange and WikiLeaks can be found in this article (Click on the tweeter below) at the MartaMitchelEffect site.

This
time the anti-Assange campaign implicates the situation of
whistle-blower Edward Snowden, whose revelations constitute in U.S-ally
England, news beyond the domestic and international spying of the U.S.;
Novel disclosures in conjunction with Mr Snowden regarding U.K.’s own
spying on their peoples, poses an imperative to the journalist role of a
MSM-establishment to which the Guardian is an important part of.

Secondly,
after the publication in the Guardian of “Rafael Correa says we helped
Snowden by mistake” we are confronting here a similar “media” phenomenon
than the previously observed in Swedish settings. The deceptive
“information” suggesting that Ecuador is in process of abandoning Mr
Julian Assange and Mr Edward Snowden, was first published in the
Guardian. But rapidly converted in a widespread international media
campaign -- using the Guardian as source.

Thirdly,
the media manoeuvre is clearly directed to embarrass not only the
relationships between Ecuador and his political-asylum guest at the
embassy in London, but also this campaign aims to hurt the political
credit of the Ecuador government. In these terms, Ecuador is nowadays
presented in some international media as being in contrast with other
Latin American governments such as Venezuela, Nicaragua or Bolivia.

The
international MSM is finally - thanks to the Guardian - spreading away
a false portrait of President Correa as giving up to US pressures
("Correa caves”, as for instance is referred to in this dispatch).

Why
would the British MSM campaign/smear against the Ecuadorian government?
For sooner or later, when/if the normal diplomatic pursues between
Ecuador and the U.K. in trying to solve the “juridical” impasse at the
London Embassy, then the confrontation will be politically open. In this
confrontation will participate on the Ecuador’s side a variety of
important of Latin America. Amongst these countries Argentina, and their
reclaim of the Falkland Islands will be surely an item. [See “III. Five
political scenarios that can break the deadlock: The Latin-American
situation” in Sweden’s Prestige Deadlocks Case Assange].

The
shortest road of disarming such eventuality is apparently to discredit
the Ecuadorian government, and search for their isolation. This explain
the fallaciously picture that the U.K. media, as well as in Sweden and
other pro-U.S. countries have tried to project about “differences”
between known ALMA countries such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba and
Venezuela on one side, and Ecuador on the other side referring the issue
of asylum for Edward Snowden. At the same time that the press
publicizes the asylum possibilities in those countries, they falsely
print that Ecuador “is not considering and will not consider asylum for
Snowden”. Which is totally false, as it is proven here through the
(unpublished) facts on the interview of president Correa done by the
Guardian.

The Interview

My
interest, or curiosity, to go further in analysing this interview was
triggered by the peculiar fashion Rory had in his questioning to Correa;
the unusual, markedly leading formulations; the extreme persistence of
coming back to the same subject when he did not get the answer, those replies a priory constructed in his questioning.

For
instance, “Is it not true that Assange had abused ‘a little’ the
confidence of the Ecuador government”? Rory Carroll whispers in a soft,
not-confronting tone, “inviting” for agreement as one comment said.

However,

a) Dealing with the above statement/question by journalist Carroll, Rafael Correa does not “comply” with bringing the
expected answer, and instead develops on that there were real,
objectively, crisis-circumstances that explain Consul Narvaez’s
reactions and initiative around the safeconduct-solution;

b)
President Correa continues by stating that those circumstances explain
also Mr Assange’s reactions -- including his “extra [‘demás’]
declarations” done from the Embassy;

Then,
in spite all the above, journalist Rory Carroll insisted later with the
same item, this time trying to find support in what some Ecuadorian
Ambassador, he said, had expressed about Assange’s declarations. But
Correa at that point manifests he had another interpretation than the
version given by the journalist .

So, apparently the interview did collapse. What is left to do for the Guardian?“If the facts do not sustain your hypothesis, then change the facts”It
is said that Einstein joked about “truth” in unscientific reports by
repeating, “If the facts do not sustain your hypothesis, then change the
facts”.And it was that type of pseudoscience, here as
journalistic alchemy, what converted the Guardian’s hypothesis of work
referring Assange, into “facts” reflected in published conclusions that a
President Correa never uttered in reality.On the “safe-conduct” / Transit passport (salvoconducto)This is what President Correa really said in the interview:“Ud
sabe, el Sr Snowden tiene contacto con el Sr Assange, y parece que
(Snowden) le manifestó la inminencia de lo iban a capturar, sacarlo de
Hong Kong, “qué se yo” [Latinamerican expression]. Y el cónsul en su
desesperación – y probablemente no pudo comunicarse con el canciller,
etc. – además me decía que esto ocurría a las cuatro de la mañana, - (el
cónsul) hace un salvoconducto sin ninguna validez o autorización o ni
siquiera en nuestro conocimiento." and continues:"Entonces, no es que hemos negado el salvo conducto, si no ese salvoconducto no tiene ninguna validez.” [Then, it is not that we have negated (denied) the safe-conduct, instead it is, that safe-conduct has no validity]"My comment: What President Correa possibly referred above with “instead that
that safe-conduct has no validity” is stating a matter of a fact. For
the safeconduct was issued for the purpose of travelling between Hong
Kong and Moscow; not for leaving Moscow to another country. And this is
confirmed in the letter sent by Edward Snowden to the Ecuadorian
Government, when he is thanking Ecuador precisely for that safe-conduct which made possible his transit to Moscow.Correa
also stated very, very clear, during the dialogue regarding the
possibilities of considering the asylum for Snowden. It is impossible
that the Guardian would have missed this:Si Snowden va a
nuestra embajada, pues, lo consideraremos (para el asilo). [If Snowden
get to our embassy, then, we shall consider him"

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